Indian share's losses exceed 2008 meltdown as Sensex crashes over 3,900 points

Indian equities lost over 13% in an unprecedented bloodbath in the Indian markets after major economic hubs in the country were placed in the lockdown due to the spread of the Coronavirus. The hit of COVID-19, coupled with the banking woes, has also triggered a loss in Indian shares, bigger than the 2008 financial crisis.

Both the benchmark indices witnessed their worst fall ever in the history after the circuit breaker -- triggered by a 10% crash in BSE Sensex within minutes of the daybreak -- halted the trading on Dalal Street.

READ: Refusing free money is a sign of fear

After hitting the circuit breaker within 45 minutes of the trade, 30-share Sensex triggered a halt for the markets for one hour. However, this time around domestic investors couldn't bail out the markets after trading resumed, and sell-off continued further, due to which broader index 50-share NSE Nifty closed with losses of over 1,000 points and Sensex by 4,000 points for the first time in the history.

The Sensex closed at 25,981.24, down 3934.72 points (13.15%) over its previous close.

All the 30 blue-chip stocks on Sensex traded in deep red, with banking stocks worst hit. The private lender Axis Bank collapse by 27.63%, followed by IndusInd Bank (23.67%) and Bajaj Finance (23.39%).

Follow live updates of coronavirus cases in India here

The overall market sentiment was also highly negative, with 2,036 declines against just 233 advances. During the mayhem, equity investors lost an unprecedented Rs 14 lakh crore, taking the total hit from coronavirus to an astounding Rs 59 lakh crore.

The situation was no different in the broader index 50-share NSE Nifty performed, as it collapsed by 12.7% (1,111 points) to close at 7,634.60.

Indian equity markets tanked about 14% below the consensus estimates for this week by the analysts on Dalal Street. Most analysts had predicted Nifty to be above 8,900-mark this week.

To give a perspective, since, January, Sensex has collapsed by 16,078 points, which is 19% more than the Nifty’s all-time high of 12,430.50.

Since January 16, the BSE Sensex has collapsed 39%, three percentage points more than the 36% collapse during the same time after the collapse of Lehmann Brothers in 2008.